Amherst Media lease extended through January 1, 2017
Eversource has agreed to extend the lease for Amherst Media at their 246 College Street 1st floor location yet again so our local cable access media provider can continue to operate thru January 1, 2017.
The Electric Company had wanted to take back their building a few years ago but allowed them to stay through December 31 this year.
The Electric Company had wanted to take back their building a few years ago but allowed them to stay through December 31 this year.
Although at the moment it looks like their rent will almost double from the current $1,740/month up to $2,913/month. Plus the cost of oil heating this winter.
Amherst Media purchased land (2 lots) around the corner on Main Street from Barbara Guidera for $340,000 and Amherst Town Meeting took the arduous step of rezoning the property to allow for commercial operations so a new building could be constructed.
Original plans were for her son Jerry Guidary to build a new structure for Amherst Media with their long term lease/committement in hand, but that project had trouble getting financing.
Historic Hills House top center. Amherst Media property in red
The $3.5 million capital fundraising campaign for the new 10,000 square foot building never materialized, so now Amherst Media has the land but have pretty much given up on the idea of constructing a new building.
Which all comes at a fairly bad time as over the next year the town is in negotiations with Comcast for the ten year license renewal of cable TV, a deal that generated almost $7 million for the cable giant last year.
Amherst Media is funded by a 5% cut of cable TV revenues (but not phone or Internet users) from about 7,000 Comcast subscribers which last year came to $317,000 and this year is expected to be around $305,000.
In addition Amherst Media is starting to do more fundraising (about $5,000 this year) and they have a just under 150 members who pay $15 per year.
But, obviously, the Comcast funding is the motherlode.
7 comments:
That's a lucky break. Amherst Media is a worthwhile endeavor and its reasonable to demand that Comcast continues to fund it.
Do 5% of Pelham's Comcast charges go to this, also, since they don't have their own resources?
Quit your whining Pelham, you know you're really Amherst with a dumpy name. Got a gas station, grocery store, restaurant? Thought not.
Larry, the quality of your anons has really taken a plunge in the past 4 months. And that's saying something!
Well, coming from an Anon ...
Exccccccccccccccuse me 12:19, I will try and raise the quality of my anons from now on. I wouldn't want to lower your expectations.
Excuse me, but I use that grassy area to walk my dog on nice days. What gives AM the right to put a building there?
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